TURKEY/BELGIUM: U.S. DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY PAUL WOLFOWITZ HAS SAID IRAQI PRESIDENT IS "SURROUNDED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY"

Record ID: 645689

  • Title: TURKEY/BELGIUM: U.S. DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY PAUL WOLFOWITZ HAS SAID IRAQI PRESIDENT IS "SURROUNDED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY"
  • Date: 4th December 2002
  • Summary: (W4) ANKARA, TURKEY (DECEMBER 04, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV OF U.S. DEPUTY DEFENCE SECRETARY PAUL WOLFOWITZ AT AIRPORT NEWS CONFERENCE MCU (English) PAUL WOLFOWITZ, U.S. DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY, SAYING: "We reached agreement on the next steps in military planning and preparations. And I believe we've charted a course for the way forward, working together. So now it should be clearer than ever that Saddam Hussein is surrounded by the international community. And finally, this is vitally important, because the most likely route to achieving a peacefully resolution, a peaceful disarmament of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, is through confronting Saddam Hussein with a unified international community is the most likely route to achieving a peaceful disarmament of Iraqi weapons of terror."
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANKARA AND ADANA, TURKEY / BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey Belgium
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACO9IIL0TCCAMJR25QP00E0ULV
  • Story Text: U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz has said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is "surrounded by the international community" and "if it does become necessary to use force we will have the world with us." His comments followed confirmation by Turkey that it would open up its bases to the U.S. for military operations against Iraq if necessary.
    U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz told reporters at Esenboga Airport before leaving Ankara on Wednesday (December 4) that, "We reached agreement on the next steps in military planning and preparations. And I believe we've charted a course to the way forward, working together."
    "So now it should be clearer than ever that Saddam Hussein is surrounded by the international community," Wolfowitz added.
    Wolfowitz said Washington wanted a peaceful outcome to the crisis over Iraq and that the only way to achieve that was to convince Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that the threat of force was genuine.
    He said: ".... the most likely route to achieving a peacefully resolution, a peaceful disarmament of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, is through confronting Saddam Hussein with a unified international community is the most likely route to achieving a peaceful disarmament of Iraqi weapons of terror."
    Muslim Turkey wants to avoid war in neighbouring Iraq, fearing it will spread turmoil in the region and damage its crisis-hit economy. But the government has been at pains to shake off suspicions about its Islamist roots and show its commitment to its U.S. ally.
    Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Tuesday (December 3) that Turkey would open up its bases to the U.S. for military operations if necessary, though it wanted a second U.N.
    resolution to authorise the use of force against Iraq. He did not clearly say that a second resolution was a condition of Turkish support.
    Asked if cooperation would include U.S. planes launching combat strikes from Turkey, Yakis said: "Yes... If you're talking about air bases, yes, those will be opened."
    The United States already uses Turkey's Incirlik airbase in the south to patrol a "no-fly" zone over northern Iraq set up after the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
    Iraq said on Wednesday the declaration it would hand to the United Nations would describe its biological, chemical, missile and nuclear technologies but would not admit to having weapons of mass destruction. The declaration is due by December 8.
    Later, speaking at a news conference in Brussels, Wolfowitz said that a dishonest statement from Iraq would have to be a major consideration of non-cooperation.
    But Wolfowitz told reporters that in deciding about the use of force, he thought the President of the United States would not decide without close consultation with allies and the international community.
    "I'm quite sure he (U.S. President George W. Bush) is not going to make it simply on the basis of one single piece of information," Wolfowitz told reporters.
    "He's going to make it not only on the pattern of information but also close consultation, particularly with our allies but indeed with the international community."
    Wolfowitz was speaking after briefing ambassadors of the 19-nation NATO alliance, where he stressed that Iraq would have to give up its suspected weapons of mass destruction if President Saddam Hussein's regime was to survive.
    Wolfowitz said he and the ambassadors discussed what role NATO might play in either the use of force in preventing the use of force.
    "We also talked this afternoon about ways in which NATO is an alliance in addition to what individual allies are doing.
    Ways in which NATO is an alliance might be able to contribute not only if there is a use of force but also in order to avoid a use of force to building up the pressure on Iraq.
    He said Washington would be consulting with allies in the weeks ahead to see if such proposals made sense.
    NATO allies gave their backing at a summit last month to the U.N. resolution demanding the disarmament of Iraq, but stopped short of proposing any role for the alliance in military action.
    Some NATO allies, notably Germany, vigorously oppose the use of force against Iraq.
    But Wolfowitz said a large number of allies had indicated they were with the United States "no matter what".
    "And I think that message should get to Baghdad," he said.
    "Saddam Hussein should understand that we already have a very strong coalition assembled if we have to. And I believe that that coalition is only going to grow. If it does become necessary to use force we will have the world with us."
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